Aloe Obligation
by Verboten Byacolate
Summary: Her skin was hot to the touch. Much too hot. "I can feel the warmth of your hands through Inoue's cool salve. Isn't that neat, Shiro-chan?" HitsuHina


_A/N;_ There are oodles of fics about summertime, so I thought I'd contribute! Please be gentle in your leering!  
_Disclaimer_; All your base are belong to Kubo. (but the evil sunburn is mine! Mine, I say!)

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_ let your hunger grow  
but don't eat the fruit too low  
keep climbing for the kisses on the other side  
wakin' me up obligin' me to the sun  
obligin' me to the sun_

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"Aiya! Hitsugaya-kun, that hurts! Be gentle!"

"Don't be such a baby, Hinamori. You had this coming to you."

Contradictory to his harsh words, Toshiro dabbed the medicinal-smelling greenish goo over his companion's bright red back in a gentler manner. The sunburn spread from shoulder to shoulder and dipped down to her lower back, showing the line of her bathing suit. (Or, rather, the one borrowed from Kurosaki Karin.) Her muscles tensed at his touch, and Toshiro could hear the crunch of sand as she clenched it in her fists.

"I... didn't know the sun would be so harmful in the human world," she said. A kid ran by their umbrella, kicking up sand as he ran. Toshiro shifted to avoid its gritty spray.

"Idiot," he replied, wiping his hands on the beach towel before lifting her ponytail to examine her neck. "You made sure to suffocate me with that sunblock, but you don't put any on yourself?"

"I did so!" she said, whipping her head around to glare at him.

"Liar." Toshiro pointed at her face. "Look, even your cheeks are sunburned."

"What?!" She turned back around quickly. "Th-that's..." That's not sunburn, Shiro-chan.

"Hmph. If you couldn't reach your back, why didn't you tell me?"

"It's embarrassing, Hitsugaya-kun!" Momo wailed as he pushed her hair away once more to apply Inoue's aloe vera to the back of her neck.

"What's embarrassing is the fact that you were careless. And now you'll be in pain."

She was quiet. The shrill laughter of Kurosaki Isshin and Yuzu was more than audible to their ears in the semi-silence. Inoue and Matsumoto were chattering nearby. Renji and Ichigo were arguing at their second-to-highest decibel about zanpakuto, and Rukia was attempting to intervene with her small fist. Karin walked by, mumbling about her father and sister's endless ocean flailing while licking a strawberry ice cream cone. Toshiro wasn't sure why he was wasting his time at the beach anyway, but he supposed it might have had something to do with Hinamori's stupid doe eyes and pleads and "I'll be your best friend!"s. Apparently, she had really wanted to come.

Hinamori had the strangest passion for blue things.

"How weird."

Toshiro blinked, awakening from his zone. "Hmm?"

"I can feel how warm your hands are, but Inoue's salve is cool on my skin." She turned her head once more and smiled. "I can barely feel the pain, Hitsugaya-kun! Thank you!"

Toshiro nodded, and waited for Momo to leave. When she didn't move more than to turn her head around again, Toshiro didn't complain. He was done spreading the aloe, but he decided that his examination wasn't over. The Tenth Captain had never seen his childhood friend's skin this color in his life. The burn she'd obtained the day before looked more and more painful as time passed, and it was apparent in her posture and the discomfiting hisses and moans he heard her give off every night through the Kurosaki's thin walls.

He was relieved to learn that Inoue had foreseen such a dilemma and brought along her plastic bottle of off-green goo. His relief was shared by Hinamori, and she'd immediately accepted when he offered to apply it.

It was surprising to him how the thick stuff could dry so quickly. His fingertips trailed lightly over her completely dry shoulder blades.

Toshiro was absolutely glad to have dulled Hinamori's pain, however temporary the effect. Anything that nearly brought her to tears whenever touched was a nuisance to be dealt with and eliminated as quickly as possible. If a vice captain was was brought to her knees at a friendly pat on the back, clinging to his pant leg, begging him to make it stop _(please, please, Shiro-chan! It hurts so bad!)_, then... then...

Geez. What a horrible memory. Hitsugaya preferred to not dwell on thoughts of Hinamori in pain. It was an insignificant pain that wouldn't be long lived at all, but she still hurt. There were still little pinpricks twisting in his gut at every curse her soft mouth uttered. It was still pain, and it was still hers to bear. He was somewhat ashamed that he hadn't picked up on the fact that she wasn't using that sun block. The smell was unique, as if adding flavor to her own scent, and he was close to her enough times to have checked. But he'd never even thought about it. She'd pestered him about putting some on that he'd just subconsciously assumed that she'd have applied it to herself as well.

What kind of protector was he to not have noticed something so simple?

Why was it making him feel like such an idiot?

Toshiro's hands found safe, normal-colored skin on his companion's forearms and he leaned forward. Her red flesh was much too hot under his lips.

"H-Hitsugaya-kun?"

_Aah, don't touch it, Shiro-chan! _

"Um... um... y-you..."

_Then what do you want me to do?!_

"Your hair is... tickling me..."

_Ow! I don't know! It hurts... so bad!  
_

"Next time," he grumbled, snatching the plastic bottle and beginning the re-application process, "put sunscreen on. And don't you dare forget, stupid Momo."

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_keep climbing for the kisses on the other side  
wakin' me up obligin' me to the sun  
obligin' me to the sun_

- fin -

**Lyrics: "Sun" by Live.  
Kyaa!! I love Toshi-pyon!! He's so sweet in a jerky kind of way. I'm not sure I put enough of his post-captain-ness in this... he seems like more like he was when he was an adorable, crude child. I'm not sure. But constructive feedback (cough reviews cough) I'm sure would fix that right up!  
I appreciate the fact that you've read this far! Take care, now!  
-Bya**


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